Two Russian
cosmonauts and an American billionaire are gearing up to launch into orbit
today on a flight bound for the International Space Station (ISS).
Expedition
15 commander Fyodor Yurchikhin, flight engineer Oleg Kotov and American
entrepreneur Charles
Simonyi -- the fifth paying tourist to the ISS -- are set to launch aboard
their Soyuz TMA-10 spacecraft at 1:31 pm. EDT (1731 GMT) from Baikonur
Cosmodrome on the Central Asian steppes of Kazakhstan.
“Very few
people know that the pad we’re going to lift off from in Baikonur is the very
first pad that the very first Sputnik was launched and, later of course, the
first human Yuri Gagarin in 1957 and 1961, respectively,” Simonyi said in a
prelaunch press conference, adding that 2007 marks the 50th
anniversary of spaceflight. “So in some sense we’ll be leaving from that historical
site.”
Simonyi, a
Hungary-born computer software developer, is reportedly paying between $20
million and $25 million for a 13-day flight to the ISS under an agreement
arranged with Russia’s Federal Space Agency and the Virginia-based firm Space
Adventures. His close friend Martha Stewart and 50 other friends have made the
trip to Baikonur Cosmodrome to watch his planned space shot, Simonyi has said.
Simonyi and the Expedition 15 crew are due to arrive at the ISS on April 9, though the space tourist will
return to Earth April 20 with the station’s Expedition 14 crew and is documenting
his spaceflight on his website www.charlesinspace.com.
“I don’t
like this word ‘tourist,’” Yurchikhin said of Simonyi in a prelaunch briefing,
adding that the American entrepreneur has several tasks to perform during
liftoff. “He will be one of our crewmembers, a real crewmember, who has a lot
of jobs in space.”
Yurchikhin
and Kotov will mark Russia’s first pair of long-duration cosmonauts to
serve together aboard the space station since the Expedition 5 mission in 2002.
They plan to perform three spacewalks during their six months aboard the
orbital outpost, join NASA astronaut Sunita Williams already aboard, and
receive several visiting space shuttle crews to continue ISS construction.
The
cosmonauts will replace Expedition 14 commander Michael Lopez-Alegria and
flight engineer Mikhail Tyurin, who have lived aboard the ISS since September
2006 and were joined by Williams in December. They also plan to host NASA’s
next shuttle mission, STS-117 aboard Atlantis, in May or June to receive a
new set of solar arrays, then welcome NASA astronaut Clayton Anderson --
Williams’ replacement -- during the STS-118 spaceflight later this summer.
A fifth
Expedition 15 crewmember, NASA astronaut Daniel Tani, could also join the crew
if his STS-120 shuttle mission to deliver the station’s new Harmony node
launches during the six-month station increment.
“We hope we
will see Dan Tani,” Yurchikhin has said.
But while
the Expedition 15 crew looks ahead to their long mission, Simonyi is eagerly
waiting to begin his own trip after a lifelong interest in human spaceflight
that began in his youth where, at age 13, he served as Hungary’s Junior Cosmonaut.
“Being
inserted into orbit and approaching the space station, seeing it in its new
glory, I think, will be a magic moment,” Simonyi said in a prelaunch briefing.
NASA
will provide live launch coverage on NASA TV beginning at 12:30 p.m. EDT (1630
GMT). Click here for live Expedition 15 mission updates and
SPACE.com’s NASA TV feed.
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